'A Living Dream' - Mark Wallington On Early Foxes Days

In conversation with Club Historian John Hutchinson, goalkeeper Mark Wallington recalled the early days of his career at Walsall before he left the Saddlers to join Leicester City, where he became a Club legend, making 460 appearances for us.

2026-11-14T09:00+00:00

by John Hutchinson

Published

20 Hours 22 Mins Ago

'A Living Dream' - Mark Wallington On Early Foxes Days

In conversation with Club Historian John Hutchinson, goalkeeper Mark Wallington recalled the early days of his career at Walsall before he left the Saddlers to join Leicester City, where he became a Club legend, making 460 appearances for us.

John Hutchinson

2026-11-14T09:00+00:00

'A Living Dream' - Mark Wallington On Early Foxes Days

In conversation with Club Historian John Hutchinson, goalkeeper Mark Wallington recalled the early days of his career at Walsall before he left the Saddlers to join Leicester City, where he became a Club legend, making 460 appearances for us.

John Hutchinson

2026-11-14T09:00+00:00

'A Living Dream' - Mark Wallington On Early Foxes Days

In conversation with Club Historian John Hutchinson, goalkeeper Mark Wallington recalled the early days of his career at Walsall before he left the Saddlers to join Leicester City, where he became a Club legend, making 460 appearances for us.

John Hutchinson

2026-11-14T09:00+00:00

'A Living Dream' - Mark Wallington On Early Foxes Days

In conversation with Club Historian John Hutchinson, goalkeeper Mark Wallington recalled the early days of his career at Walsall before he left the Saddlers to join Leicester City, where he became a Club legend, making 460 appearances for us.

John Hutchinson

2026-11-14T09:00+00:00

Ahead of our recent Jersey Mike’s Trophy clash with the Saddlers, we revisited that interview. Thinking back to how he joined Walsall in 1971, Sleaford-born Mark began: “My initial break in football began when I was a schoolboy and was selected for Lincolnshire. I was then fortunate enough to be capped for England Schoolboys when I was on schoolboy forms for Lincoln City, who wanted to sign me. However, I didn’t sign because I’d got my heart set on the teaching profession and I wanted to complete by A Levels, whilst playing for my village side, Heckington.

“I went to Carnegie College when I was 18. Whilst there, I came back home to play in the local village cup final for Heckington.

“The guest of honour at that match was Eric Houghton, who had been born in the village. He was a director at Walsall. He’d been an ex-England international forward who’d played for Aston Villa in the 1930s and had managed Villa in the 1950s.

“He invited me down to Walsall for pre-season training whilst I was on my holidays from college, so that was convenient. I was picked up from the station by Walsall’s captain, Stan Bennett, and when I was asking him about the trials I was envisaging there being about 30 lads down there and two or three games. He then told me that the trial was a match behind closed doors against, ironically enough, Leicester City and that I’d be getting half a game.

“I think it was one of Jimmy Bloomfield’s first games as Leicester’s Manager. The team had players like Crossy (Graham Cross), John Sjoberg and Shilts (Peter Shilton). These were players I’d watched as a young man only the season before and now I was playing against them! I thought: ‘Well, enjoy it!’

“I made a penalty save in the second half from (Leicester City captain) David Nish, and I was then lucky enough to be asked by Walsall to go on the pre-season tour with them. As this coincided with my summer break from college, I went on the tour up to Scotland with them. I played three games up there and Walsall then wanted to sign me. As I was at college, I initially signed amateur forms for them, which meant I was playing for Walsall whilst still studying at Carnegie.”

During that season at Fellows Park, Mark played some games in the first team as a semi-professional. He then came to national prominence when he put on a superb performance, which was shown on national television, in an FA Cup tie against Everton at Goodison Park, in front of a crowd of over 45,000.

Thinking back to this game, Mark recalled: “A lot of players would take the view that you can have 10 players of equal ability, but a lot depends on the luck of the draw, and on being in the right place at the right time. This was the case with me at Everton. I’d played half a dozen games and then, at Bradford, I had a bad injury to my hand. I had broken fingers and had to be operated on. In the meantime, Walsall had gone on a cup run. Then our goalkeeper, Bob Wesson (who played 220 games for the Saddlers), was sent off in the previous round and was suspended. Recovered from injury, I slotted back into the side for the big game at Everton, which we lost 2-1.”

A month later, having played 11 games for Walsall, Mark signed for Jimmy Bloomfield’s Leicester City for a reported fee of £30,000.

Explaining how this came about, Mark continued: “The chief scout at Leicester at that time was a man called Ray Shaw. He’d been a manager at Walsall. There was a lot of contact between Leicester and Walsall during the previous close season and I think Leicester might have got the first option to sign me. I didn’t know about this, but I think that’s how the move materialised.

“The irony was, though, that before I went to Leicester, Walsall wanted me to sign full-time as a professional. They were sort of pushing me to do this because apparently none of the big clubs would look at me whilst I was still at university. I’d just finished my second-year exams and I approached the college to see if I could have a year’s sabbatical so that I could go full-time at Walsall. My idea was that, if this didn’t work out, then there would be a place kept open for me to return to college. So I rang Walsall to say I would like to sign as a full-time player.

“However, I never actually went full-time with Walsall because they said: ‘Well, don’t bother coming here, go straight to Filbert Street, we’ll meet you there!’ I think this was because once I’d said I would go full-time, Leicester wanted to sign me and had got on the phone to Walsall, knowing that I was now prepared to do it. So I went straight over to Filbert Street. I signed on the Wednesday and made my debut in a First Division match against West Ham on the Saturday. We won 2-0 and I was delighted to keep a clean sheet. To play against players like Bobby Moore and Geoff Hurst, who were people I’d admired and respected so much as a schoolboy, was a living dream. I’d always dreamt of making it as a professional and there I was actually playing a game in the First Division.”

When Mark joined Leicester, Peter Shilton had been the ’keeper for the previous five seasons and had already won his first three England caps. In 2019, Peter explained to us how he was involved in Mark leaving Walsall for Leicester.

“Two and a half years before I left Leicester,” Peter told us, “Jimmy Bloomfield asked me to watch Walsall’s goalkeeper, Mark Wallington, in a game against Bristol Rovers, but he didn’t want anyone to know I was there. So I put on a scarf and sat in the stands. Mark was a big lad. He didn’t really look like a goalkeeper, but he had a really good game that night. I came back and I said: ‘Sign him. I’ll work with him, get him fit and get a bit of weight off him’. Eighteen months later, Mark was ready for the First Team. He was a fantastic goalkeeper and also a great lad.”

Shilton stayed with us for another two and a half years, so initially Mark’s opportunities were few and far between, but he benefitted from training with Peter.

“Peter and myself formed a very good relationship,” Mark continued. “I appreciated the fact that I hadn’t had any professional training on a regular basis at that point. I’d been attached to Walsall but in a very ad-hoc situation. I did understand and appreciate the fact that Peter may well be on the move and that, if he went, I had to be ready and good enough to step in and cement my place in the team, rather than Leicester having to go out and buy a new ’keeper.”

This wish came true after Shilton left Filbert Street in 1974. Mark played 460 games for Leicester City until he left in 1985. Only four players, Graham Cross, Adam Black, Jamie Vardy and Kasper Schmeichel, have made more peacetime appearances for us. Mark’s 331 consecutive appearances between 1975 and 1982, meanwhile, is a Club record. He then went on to play for Derby County and Lincoln City until he retired from the professional game, 20 years after he began his journey at Walsall.

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